70 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



receive a check, so that feeding in moderation should be commenced 

 even a little before they have exhausted all the goodness in the soil. 

 I prefer to commence with soot -water or a little liquid cow manure 

 some time in July, following it up with a dressing or two of artificial 

 manure as it becomes necessary. A good compound manure should 

 be used, though in exceptional circumstances a dose of sulphate 

 of ammonia or nitrate of soda may be given, but unless the weather 

 is very hot such manures are too stimulating, repeated applications 

 resulting in a greater wealth of foliage than is necessary, and if applied 

 late in the season the tendency to damp is much increased. Feeding 

 may be continued till the blooms are about one third expanded, but 

 discretion must be used at all times, taking into consideration the 

 state of the plants and the existing weather conditions. 



Buds taken from the 8th to the 20th of August produce the best 

 blooms ; at the same time a few varieties may open their flowers well 

 if taken before the earliest date mentioned. There are a few that 

 produce good blooms from an even later date, but in stopping the 

 plants the grower should at least aim at getting the buds to show at 

 or about these dates. 



We may now return to the decorative varieties, including all classes 

 of the flower. There are different systems of cultivating these. Some 

 growers prefer to pinch the plants when 5 or 6 inches high and again 

 after they have made a further growth of 5 or 6 inches, to induce 

 a bushy habit of growth, the last pinching usually taking place after 

 they are established in their flowering-pots. After this pinching they 

 are usually allowed to flower naturally in sprays, or disbudded, one 

 bloom to each shoot. This, I may say, is the usual practice, but for 

 a number of years now I have adopted a different system, allowing 

 the plants to grow naturally from the time the cuttings are rooted 

 until the buds are fit for taking. They are struck and potted on as 

 outlined earlier in the paper, and are treated as hard as possible early 

 in the season, an excess of water being particularly guarded against. 

 By this treatment the growth is very hard and the plants break 

 naturally, and give me even more shoots than I can obtain by pinching. 

 Very little, if any, manure is given till the flower-buds appear and are, 

 where necessary, taken ; when they are fed regularly, though not so 

 heavily as the Japanese, the wood is stiffer and less attenuated, the 

 plant more shapely, and the flowers as good as, if not better than, can 

 be obtained by any method of stopping. 



One stake only is necessary to each plant, the shoot being slung 

 to this central stake probably twice during their season of growth. 



The market grower who aims at securing good-sized blooms, say 

 4 to 6 inches in diameter, adopts much the same methods, except that 

 he usually tops his plants once just before they make their first natural 

 break, in May or very early June. He may do so again with some 

 varieties to hasten or retard the date of their flowering, but he usually 

 secures the number of shoots he requires on the plants from the first 

 topping and takes the first or second buds after the break, according 

 to the varieties. 



